BlackBerry Curve 8520 Reviews

I had bought BB 8520 in May 2011. Usage generally involves heavy calls , messaging occasionally and frequent texting on BBM.
In March 2013 I have been experiencing sudden hanging of the phone. Inspite of reloading the software several times, there seems to be no solution.
Battery life has also depreciated to hardly two hours of talk time.

Seems that BB is seriously overhyped; but then again is this the case with all smartphones?
Also I think this is the reason why people generally prefer to keep two mobiles ; one budget phone for heavy texting and calling ( what mobiles were originally meant for) and the other smartphone for internet, games , and status ;)

Verdict: The life of smartphones is very short. When I buy a phone I expect it to last at least three years if not more. Not happy.

I know it can be disorienting to have extraordinary and terrible reviews slapped in your face one after the other. But it is always better to see if negative reviews outweigh positives, and in the case of BB Curve 8520 - that is exactly the scenario.

Note: I bought a BB Curve in June 2011 and writing this nearly 2 years later. Don't go by that. I vividly remember experiencing the first of many glitches within less than a month.

Let me guide you as to why you should not buy a blackberry.

1. "REASON TO BUY - BBM"

If you're getting the entry model BB, it is highly likely that your reason to buy is BBM - the famous fart BlackBerry Messenger.
NO doubt, BBM is highly addictive. But only once you start using it. Don't use it and you survive perfectly well with Whatsapp, Gtalk, even good ol' text messages.

A common misconception is that BBM comes *with* the BlackBerry. Yes, the application does. The service doesn't. All network providers require you spending at least Rs. 500 a month on BBM service. Let's face it: IT'S A WASTE.

Either way, it's 2013. People who made the mistake of buying BBs a year back now realize it was a passing fad and that Blackberrys (unless it's an EXTREMELY fancy model) are mocked and considered a load of crap.

2. CAMERA

The camera is a joke. Paying 9K for a smartphone, you would expect a decent camera quality, if not bad. But Curve 8520 fails to deliver. The pictures turn out dark, grainy, pixelated, shadowed - basically everything else than what a picture should be. All this under reasonable light. Step outside in peak sunlight and you might get lucky with 1 or 2 OK shots - nothing extraordinary.

But that should be fine by BB standards, I guess. 2 OK pictures. Once in a while. Under harsh sunlight. For 9K. Ouch.

3. BATTERY

The battery is a BIGGER joke.

You've probably heard a lot of people whining about this. Incase you haven't, here it is : THE BATTERY FREAKING SUCKS! Not even exaggerating.

Primary reason - the BBM service. But that's no excuse. The company needs to PROVIDE BATTERIES that SUPPORT THEIR TRADEMARK APPS. In the case of BB and BBM - It fails majorly.

The phone lasts for about 7 hours - with 40 minutes of everything included - texting, whatsapp, calling, etc. Why? Because BBM runs in the background and hogs up all the battery, even if you are not using the app per se. And the worst part - you can't shut down the BBM app or turn off the BBM connectivity.

4. LAGS / CRASHES

Month 1 after buying blackberry, I started experiencing minor lags, WITHOUT any significant applications downloaded. Why? I have no clue.

Come later months and the lags increase - both in duration and frequency. The phone would hang - mid message, mid BBM , mid ANYTHING. There have been numerous instances where I wasn't even able to answer phonecalls. The lags are horrendous and they last from anything between 10 seconds to Forever, and usually require taking out the battery and re-booting. (which can take upto 20 minutes)

Post month 6 I started experiencing crashes ; sparse - at first, once every week - later.

5. DURABILITY

As I read somewhere earlier on the site, this phone is like a plastic toy. Drop it on accident once, it'll survive with a few scars or bumps. Drop it more than once, the plastic/rubber side panels will slowly start to fall - leaving your phone looking like an ugly duckling.

In the rare case that you almost never drop your phone, the side/back panels will anyway weather off due to usage. The rubber edges will start to disappear, button flaps will fall off, etc. Yes. THE BODY MELTS AWAY WITH USE.

5. GHOST LIGHTS

This is my favorite, perhaps the funniest BB glitch. I call it 'ghost lights'.
The backlight of the phone is freaking random. It randomly gets brighter and duller, without the user touching the keypad. It won't affect the functioning but might leave you shocked and creeped out at first. Eventually you'll just get used to it.

THE VERDICT: It is GREAT for a user who prefers changing phones once every 6 months. But for someone looking for more reliable, about 2 years good functioning - this is a TERRIBLE CHOICE.

Hope this shatters all your myths about buying a BlackBerry Curve 8520.

Cheers! :)

BlackBerrys are rip-offs. The only reason they sell is because of the brand status (which is NIL in the United States BTW, but no one cares about that). I'm on my 2nd Curve 8520 & I hate it very much. I just can't get a new phone right now, that's why I am not buying one. In the first one, I dropped it once & it would not read SD cards. Then, I got it replaced & I got my second one. Since the last few days, the whole phone's acting demented. When I press the Q key for example, some other letter will pop up. When I try to unlock it, I have to keep pressing the mute button for 10 minutes to unlock it. At times, the trackpad doesn't work & the trackpad button never works. The keyboard's maybe the only good thing about it. There are no apps on the platform, so no games except maybe a few nice ones from App World. The specs are horrible, it doesn't have 3G even though it costs nearly 10k & BBM costs 129 (fine) & BBM & horribly slow EDGE costs a really high 400. Sure, the data is unlimited, but by the time I will download one 6MB song, I will reach home & download it on my home network. I bought it in September 2011 because BB was a cool thing to own & today I realize that I made an irrational purchase. Please don't waste your money & buy a good Android phone. Buy Indian if your budget isn't too high & you'll get great value for your money. If BBM is important to you, realize that India is slowly moving to Androids & iPhones, & you can do all you can do on BBM & even more on WhatsApp. Even though I don't like iPhones (Android's my favorite), I would choose one over a BlackBerry. I hope I helped you.

This is a simple, robust well performing phone for those who wish to talk and send email. If you wish to all the fancy stuff then you are looking in the wrong place. But give me this any day over all the touch screens when I want a feel of them ol' fashioned keys to be able to send messages without looking at the keyboard.

Since I carry 2 phones, 1 to speak & message and 1 to game/ surf/ watch videos/ etc., I think this phone plays its role perfectly as the former. I bought this to replace my earlier 8520 which got damaged. I just didn't think twice about buying this.

I ordered this cell a month and a half back. Interestingly since last week the phone has started behaving funnily. There hasn't been any mishandling of the product I know of So all in all a very bad deal of ordering online since now I will have to run to the BB store every time to get it fixed. Wish FK could facilitate availing the warranty on its purchases.

This phone is really very good.Using this hand set for a long time. Pretty handy while texting. As usual being BB its good.
The music quality is pretty good.
Battery backup is awesome.
The display is blowing and the Optical trackpad is amazing,almost like a touch Screen scrolling around the phone.
Admit it, however comfortable you are typing on a touchscreen, you would rather enjoy having a keyboard which can give that tactile feedback to your fingers.
Blackberrys have the best qwerty keyboards in the market.
its awesome jst go 4 it....

I got the Blackberry Curve around 2 years back for the same reason everyone (well, at least college students) had a blackberry- for Blackberry Messenger. After the initial excitement wore down of being able to chat with friends and family unlimited, I was stuck with some harsh facts:

1) Paying Rs399 on Vodafone for BBM including unlimited web browsing. PLUS having to pay regular phone fees for texting and calling, which drove my monthly phones expenses to Rs500+ a month. And for a college student paying that much out of your own pocket every month is ridiculously steep, especially for times when you don't end up using your phone too much

2) Frequent phone "blackouts"- after about 5 or 6 months if I even gently placed my phone on a table or even a soft surface like a cushion my phone would randomly pass out and take 15 bloody minutes to start up again. 15 minutes?!! and it's not like my phone was jam packed with media files or such that if should take time to load.

3) Keypad and trackpad probs were usual with this phone. Even after adjusting trackpad sensitivity settings and taking good care of my phone, I had to get it serviced.

4) Along with its loading time this phone can be just too f-ing slow.

So unless you have 100+ friends on BBM, don't mind a long loading period, can afford to pay a huge monthly bill and you really like Blackberry for its other features BESIDES just BBM then go for it. Otherwise don't bother because Blackberry is dead, get an Android, which is what I'm about to do.

Amazingly awesome product...Truly i am blackberry boy,full on mast phone,great camera,ultrafast OS,surfing smooth,everything full on upto the mark,A must buy phone for truly fan of blackberry...action starts here..:P

worst phone i ever buy as i have to gift it .Bakwass phone.
1. Worst camera even micromax provide better camera
2.it's not rich people phone but bewkuf people phone
3.i am happy that i am not blackberry boy
4. why to pay rs 400 for messaging to idiots in BBM
5.customer support ,they do not have there own service centre they share there service centre with motorola and sony in many place.
6.if you are fool purchase it otherwise go for some android or even bada is better than BB.

Flipkart is awesome in delivery as always.
As to post this review i have to give rating otherwise i will not give any rating to this junk device.

Very good and very handy to use.
OS very supportive.
Accessories are very useful. One of the strong mobile ever seen ( Fallen down more than 10 times but nothing happened).
Have to be bit careful with charger and USB while inserting, pins may get damaged.
Only prob is gets hanged when other calles comes during a running call.